Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

1. Authorship and Responsibility

• AI is not an Author: Generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT, Midjourney, or LLMs) do not meet the criteria for authorship. They cannot take legal responsibility for the work, manage copyright agreements, or attest to the integrity of the data.
• Human Accountability: Authors are 100% responsible for the accuracy, originality, and integrity of the entire manuscript. This includes ensuring that AI-generated content is free from plagiarism, bias, or "hallucinations" (fabricated information).
  
  

2. Disclosure Requirements

If AI tools are used in the research or writing process beyond basic grammar and spell-checking, authors must provide a formal statement in the Methods or Acknowledgments section. This disclosure should include:

• The Name and Version: e.g., "ChatGPT-4" or "Claude 3.5."
• The Purpose: Describe how the tool was used (e.g., data analysis assistance, draft polishing, or literature summarization).
• The Extent: Specify which sections of the paper involved AI assistance.
  
  

3. Ethical Constraints
   

• Originality: AI should not be used to generate core intellectual content, primary hypotheses, or data interpretation that the authors have not verified or conceived.
• Plagiarism: Authors must ensure that AI-generated text does not infringe on the intellectual property of others.
• Data Privacy: Authors must not upload sensitive, confidential, or proprietary data into public AI tools, as this may violate privacy laws or institutional review board (IRB) protocols.
  
  

4. Image and Data Integrity
   

• Generative Graphics: The use of AI-generated images, figures, or artworks is generally discouraged unless the paper specifically discusses AI technology. Any AI-generated visual must be clearly labeled as such in the caption.
• Data Augmentation: Using AI to "clean" or enhance research images (such as micrographs or gel blots) in a way that obscures or alters the original data is strictly prohibited and considered research misconduct.
  
  

5. Reviewer and Editor Use
   

• Confidentiality: Reviewers are strictly prohibited from uploading submitted manuscripts into AI tools for the purpose of generating reviews or summaries. This constitutes a breach of the peer-review confidentiality agreement.